The Reality of Poisoning

The Reality of Poisoning

As parents, grandparents, and child-care providers we all want to keep our children safe and secure, allowing them to live their full potential.  Prevention and knowledge of the leading cause of childhood injury; poisoning is a step toward reaching this goal. In the United States, everyday 300 children between the ages 0 to 19 are treated in the emergency department, two children die, as a result of being poisoned. It’s not just the chemicals in our home marked with clear warning labels that can be dangerous to children.

Everyday items in your home, such as household cleaners and medicines, can be poisonous to children as well. Active, curious children will often investigate; sometimes try to eat or drink anything that they can get into. Many household cleaners and medicines look like harmless items; candy, food, juice, or other type of beverage.

Pills look like candy

Cleaning products look like beverages 

Cleaning products look like food

Thankfully, there are ways you can help poison-proof your home and protect the children you love.

Prevention Tips

Lock them up. Keep medicines and toxic products, such as cleaning solutions, in their original packaging where children can’t see or get them.

Know the number. Put the national poison control center phone number, 1-800-222-1222, on or near every telephone in your home and program it into your cell phone. Call the poison control center if you think a child has been has been poisoned, they can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call 911 if you have a poison emergency, if your child has collapsed or is not breathing.

Read the label. Follow label directions and read all warnings when giving medicines to children.

Don’t keep it if you don’t need it. Safely dispose of unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs and over the counter drug, vitamins, and supplements. To dispose of medicines, remove all identifying information, mix them with coffee grounds, kitty litter, soil, and water, and throw them away. You can also turn them in at a local take back program or during National Drug Take Back events.

Button batteries, harmful for small children, elderly, and pets

Have you ever noticed the amount of toys or products that use those small harmless looking button batteries? Those flat silver discs used in toys like remote control cars, musical greeting cards, bathroom scales, watches, flameless candles and many other types of home electronics. Some are lithium batteries in which pose the greatest potential for harm. There is an average of 3,500 button battery ingestions reported annually to Poison Control Centers. Swallowing batteries is not a new trend for children, elderly adults, or pets to ingest. The concern is over the years is the development of stronger, larger lithium cell batteries, increases the risk of potential severe complications to the individual following the ingestion. Most parents and adults are unaware of the potential for danger from these little items.

Deaths from battery ingestions are rare, per the poison center information there were 10 documented deaths in the past 6 years. Small children, elderly adults, and pets may view the battery as candy, medication, or food. The greatest concern is if the battery gets lodged in the esophagus. The battery has low voltage current that can be completed if it comes in contact with the right environment (a throat or esophagus), and cause severe damage; burns, erosions. One of the physicians from the Journal of Pediatrics did a test, he uses a hot dog and inserted a button battery in it to get an idea how it would react. The hot dog casing is similar to the esophagus of a human; the battery cooked the hot dog.

Possible complications from an ingestion of the battery, is the risk of getting lodged in the vocal cords or esophagus. This can cause serious injury to the vocal cords and digestive tract. Depending on the size of the battery the greater the risk, the larger the battery increase chance for serious injuries. The button battery has popular appeal and the manufacturing industry has shifted towards using this more frequently. Federal safety rules require toys that use the batteries to have a battery compartment that requires the use of screws as a deterrent for access to children. Unfortunately there are not such regulations or rules for devices intended for adult use, bathroom scales, watches, greeting cards, flameless candles or other electronic devices.

Children and pets will find the battery loose and ingest it without an adult even being aware. The common age of ingestion in children is 6. Elderly adults can also be at risk for ingestion of a button battery, thinking its medication when in fact it may be a hearing aid battery. There is a 2 hour window following battery ingestion before symptoms may be observed before complications can occur. Once burning occurs the damage may continue even when the battery has been removed. A majority of the time the ingestions are not witnessed. Children have been able to breathe with a disc battery in the airway; it is not an obvious ingestion and the child will not appear in distress. Children or pets may present with symptoms that are nonspecific; coughing, wheezing, vomiting, drooling, and refusing to eat are possible symptoms. This can be diagnosed as something else such as stomach flu or pneumonia. Information for handling ingestion in children, elderly, and pets is similar.

Tips for battery safety

• Search your home, and any place a child has potential to go for any device or gadget that may use disc lithium batteries
• Secure disc lithium battery controlled devices out of sight and reach of small children. Keep loose batteries locked up or in a safe area.
• Pass the information on to family members, babysitters, friends, and caregivers these important tips.

What to do is a disc battery has been ingested

• Go to a local emergency room immediately.  Inform health care providers of your concern that your child may have ingested a disc battery; if possible provide the identification number found on the battery package.
• Do not let the child eat or drink anything until a chest x-ray is completed to determine if a battery is present.
• Do not induce vomiting

For more information contact:

• National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 202-625-3333
• Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222